Correction: Obit-John McLaughlin story

NEW YORK (AP) — In a story Aug. 16 reporting the death of John McLaughlin, The Associated Press erroneously identified McLaughlin's partner in launching " The McLaughlin Group."

John McLaughlin, the conservative political commentator and host of the namesake long-running television show that pioneered hollering-heads discussions of Washington politics, has died

NEW YORK (AP) — John McLaughlin, the conservative political commentator and host of the namesake long-running television show that pioneered hollering-heads discussions of Washington politics, has died.

No cause of death was mentioned, but an ailing McLaughlin had missed the taping for this past weekend's show — his first absence in the series' 34 years.

Since its debut in April 1982, "The McLaughlin Group" upended the soft-spoken and non-confrontational style of shows such as "Washington Week in Review" and "Agronsky & Co." with a raucous format that largely dispensed with politicians.

In an interview with The Associated Press in 1986, McLaughlin said he felt talk shows hadn't kept pace with changes in television.

Whether it was the guerrilla strategy of Afghan mujahedeen or the next open-market operation by the Federal Reserve Board, the members of the group always seemed to have just gotten off the phone with the guy in charge, Eric Alterman charged in his 2000 book, Sound and Fury:

A 1990 article in The Washington Post Magazine by Alterman quoted former McLaughlin staffers Anne Rumsey, Kara Swisher and Tom Miller recalling instances of petty tyranny and McLaughlin leering at female employees.

In 1982, McLaughlin's friend Richard Moore, a former aide in the Nixon White House and a former television executive, joined forces with McLaughlin to create a new form of public affairs television — and a juggernaut was born.